1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser therapeutic apparatus designed to apply a laser beam to an affected part of a patient who is suffering from neuralgia, rheumatism, arthritis or the like to thereby relieve or cure the discomfort. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a laser therapeutic apparatus which employs an optical fiber to guide a laser beam which is applied to an affected part of a patient through a probe.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, one type of therapeutic apparatus that utilizes a laser beam has been put into practical use for treatment of pains or other discomforts. A typical conventional laser therapeutic apparatus has heretofore been arranged such that a laser beam emitted from a laser diode is condensed through a condenser lens, and this condensed laser beam is guided through a single optical fiber cable to a probe which is provided at the distal end of the cable and through which the laser beam is applied to an affected part of a patient to thereby treat a disease, for example, a pain.
The above-described conventional laser therapeutic apparatus suffers, however, from the following problems The prior art apparatus comprises a single probe in association with a laser diode which defines an oscillator for generating a laser beam and a controller which controls the laser beam. Therefore, it is possible to treat only one affected part at a time. In many cases, each individual patient has a plurality of affected parts. Accordingly, the conventional laser therapeutic apparatus has the disadvantage that the time that the laser therapeutic apparatus is used per patient is disadvantageously long, which means that the apparatus cannot efficiently be used and the patient is kept lying on the bed for a disadvantageously long time.
When the probe which has become stained or broken as a result of a long time use needs to be replaced with a new one, the probe must be changed together with the optical fiber, and it is necessary in order to effect this replacement to carry out troublesome operations. For example, it is necessary to disconnect the old optical fiber and connect a new one instead within the body of the laser therapeutic apparatus. Further, since the conventional proble has a single kind of configuration, it is difficult to effectively apply the probe to any affected part throughout the patient's body and in conformity with individual therapeutic conditions. It may be a solution to the above-described problem to prepare in advance probes having various kinds of configuration which are conformable with various affected parts and therapeutic conditions and to select a probe which is conformable with a particular affected part in each treatment. However, since the probe and the body of the apparatus are directly connected through the optical fiber, it is not easy for a doctor or an operator to replace probes at the treatment site.